


adherence

by Archadian_Skies



Series: software instability [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Artificial Intelligence, Childhood Friends, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, budding gladnis WHO KNOWS, i learned a lot about bookbinding for this one, sci fi so fly, the tale of ignisbot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-18 02:13:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14843646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: Gladio never expected the book he received the morning they set off for Altissia would be the last gift he'd ever receive from his dad. And now it lies discarded and torn apart on the floor of the Regalia.[set after events of 'one of a kind']





	adherence

The library is his favourite room in the Amicitia Manor. It's huge, taking up an entire wing of the building with books reaching up to the roof broken up into two open levels. Some of his most favourite, treasured memories are the ones spent on his dad's lap, book propped up on his knees as Clarus read aloud to him with his deep soothing voice.

The library is-  _was_ their retreat, their sanctuary.

When he turned twelve and officially began his Crownsguard training, Clarus gave him his first novel. It was some historic adventure, not too wordy, not too heavy. 

"Astrals know how much reading I got done waiting around for Regis." His father had rolled his eyes, patting Gladio on the back fondly. "Best you start early and pick up the habit too."

And a habit it soon became, as Gladio began to carry paperbacks with him at all times. He'd leave them everywhere - his training room locker, dotted around the house, in his school desk, in his satchel. Even in Ignis' car when they were older.

On the morning he was to depart for Altissia, Clarus had placed a beautiful linen hardcover in his hands. A new release from his favourite author; an historical epic of war and peace, blood and tears, romance and heartbreak.

 

_To Gladiolus,_

_May this adventure keep you company on yours._

_Love always, Dad_

 

His father had embraced him tightly, kissing his cheek and mussing his hair affectionately. Gladio had dismissed the glassiness in his eyes with light teasing, _what old man are you missing the days you spent on the road? Feeling your age now are you?_

Clarus had laughed it off and shoved him towards the door. Gladio gave him a lazy finger salute and headed off, shoving the book into his pack. 

He'd headed out in the Regalia an hour later with the ragtag trio, to get Noct hitched in Altissia.

He never thought Insomnia would fall in their absence.

And now after breaking into a military fort and fighting their way through to get their vehicle back, the last gift he'd received from his father lies discarded and torn apart on the floor of the Regalia. The soldiers must have rummaged through the car for anything to confiscate, perhaps flicked through the book in the hopes of finding coded messages. It hadn't been a fruitful search, and the book had been destroyed whether out of frustration or malice he'll never know.

Gladio swipes the pieces into his bag and says nothing. He grits his teeth until his jaw aches, but he keeps his emotions in check. That he clenches his hands hard enough the leather audibly creaks is not commented on by the other three.

They stay at the nearest motel to avail of the hot running water and the laundromat, and the air is too thick, the tension too tight for him to manage. He escapes to the rooftop with his bag and only then does he cradle the broken book and only then does he let his world fall apart for the second time.

* * *

They are missing a party member when Ignis returns from the laundromat. Noctis is fast alseep on one of the beds, Prompto is in the shower, and Gladiolus is not in their room.

Ignis does a quick scan of his surroundings, and assesses the situation safe enough to leave the Prince in the care of his best friend.

He finds Gladiolus sitting on the edge of the motel rooftop after a quick process of elimination against possible scenarios.

"Oh uh, hey Iggy." Gladiolus wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. "What are you doing here?"

"You were missing when I returned to our room." 

"Uh yeah just, y'know, didn't want anyone seeing me cry over a dumb broken book when Noct's lost way more." He rubs his eyes stubbornly and looks away when Ignis sits beside him.

"You and I both know it is more than a 'dumb broken book'." Ignis rests his palm on his back, careful to raise his temperature so he exudes warmth. "That book has immense sentimental value for you."

"It's the last thing he gave me." Gladiolus holds the broken halves together, his breath hitching as he attempts to hold back his sobs. "It's the only thing I have of him now."

"You have not grieved properly, Gladiolus. Let yourself grieve."

"There's no time." Gladiolus growls, irritated as he rubs his eyes again.

"We have time now." Ignis takes the book from his hand and sets it aside. "You do not have to grieve alone."

He folds Gladiolus into his embrace. 

The Shield permits himself to grieve at last and cries and cries and cries.

* * *

Later when Gladiolus slumbers beside him on the bed, Ignis knows what he has to do.

 

{Concierge, how may I help you?}

[Please extend the booking for room B7 for another night.]

{This will incur a charge of 300 gil. Proceed: Y/N?}

[ **Y** ]

{Please confirm payment}

 

Access: Electronic funds transfer

Transfer: 300 gil

Recipient: Three Z's Motel 

Proceed: Y/N?

**Y**

 

[Payment confirmed]

{Payment received. Please enjoy your stay}

 

Ignis disconnects from the Concierge android and brings up the search engine on his user interface.

 

[Search: 'bookbinding']

[Search: 'book repair']

[Search: 'book restoration']

[Search: 'bookbinding supplies']

[Search: 'bookbinding techniques']

* * *

Ignis sends the trio on two hunts, informing them he will stay behind to take care of domestic tasks while he has access to essential equipment. They leave on chocobos, and once sufficient time passes Ignis leaves in the Regalia and heads to the closest food markets.

_'A cement which will adhere perfectly to glazed surfaces, repair broken minerals, or, in fact, stick to anything, is made by taking two ounces of clear gum arable [sic], one and one-half ounces of fine starch, one half ounce of fine sugar.'_

The chances of finding proper bookbinding equipment and supplies are scarce, but Ignis can improvise and craft a substitute. He buys the ingredients and heads back to the motel.

_'Pulverise the gum arabic, and dissolve it in as much water as the laundress would use for the quantity of starch indicated. Dissolve the starch and sugar in the gum solution.'_

The process will set him back an hour, but he estimates the hunts will take the trio at least two.

_'Then cook the mixture in a vessel suspended in boiling water until the starch becomes clear. The cement should be as thick as tar, and kept so. It can be kept from spoiling by dropping in a lump of gum camphor or a little oil of cloves.'_

He only has regular cotton thread and needles, but it shall suffice. Ignis carefully stitches the pages back into a stack from where they had been torn at the spine. He sacrifices the pastry brush and uses it to spread the glue carefully along the spine of the pages before pressing it to the linen cover. The dilemma of lacking bookbinding clamps is remedied by wrapping the book in a shirt and placing it under the mini refrigerator.   

Over the course of his activation, he's repaired a multitude of clothing from loose buttons to adjusting hems for growing princes. He's never had to repair a book, though he will do his utmost best to ensure the end result is satisfactory. The task is too important, even if the risk is great.

* * *

He needs to see Iris. 

The ache in his chest is too great, the grief red and raw after he held the book halves in his hands.

He wants his sister. He needs his family.

The hunts had distracted him enough, the burn of overworked muscles a welcome sensation when the alternative is nursing the gaping wound where his heart should be but isn't because one half is back in Insomnia's Citadel without a proper burial, and the other sequestered away in the Lestallum Leville.

By the time they get back to the hotel, they're a sweaty tired mess and though he's itching for a shower he ushers Noct in first and wanders off to check in on Ignis.

The android is at the stove and the makings of a mushroom rice dish are spread out on the bench. It's odd that the dish isn't complete yet- usually Ignis adhered to a strict meal schedule whenever he could and there certainly weren't any distractions preventing him from doing so today.

"Hey Iggy."

"Good afternoon Gladiolus. I will have lunch ready by the time the three of you have washed up." Ignis assures him with a nod. Gladio wearily scrubs at his face with a hand.

"Alright." He leaves it at that and wanders to the rooftop again, too tired to converse, too tired to attempt any semblance of congenial company. He wants Iris. Hell, he even wants Talcott and Jared. He wants to sit with Jared and ask him all about the father he'll never get to know properly. He wants to know what his father would think of all this, this mess, this lump in his chest that weighs him down with a mixture of burden and anxiety and frustration and hope.

What would his father think about artificial intelligence so intelligent it hardly seems artificial anymore?

Did he know Ignis would be like this? Did King Regis know, all those years ago when Candor Stupeo Scientia built a robot boy and gave it feelings and charged it with looking after the Heir Apparent?

Gladio sits on the edge of the motel rooftop and wonders what the Astrals think about all this.

What is it like, to have someone they didn't make with a fate they can't control be a key figure in their ruthless game?

* * *

When Gladiolus seeks the book that evening, Ignis tells him he has carefully wrapped and packed it away safely until they get back to Lestallum and can find someone to repair it. 

It is a lie. There are no skilled bookbinders in Lestallum. Ignis checked.

Any android can, theoretically, download and follow instructions to repair a book. But Ignis did not want any other android to do it. _He_ wanted to do it. So he did.

The promise of his precious book being repaired is enough to placate Gladiolus. Prompto convinces them to play cards and so they wile away the remaining hour and he makes sure he lets each of them win equally before winning the last round himself because it is only fair, surely, to do so.

He shares the bed with Gladiolus again and the hunts during the day, especially the third one after lunch, did well to exhaust the Shield. He falls asleep in twelve minutes. Ignis seeks his hand in the dark, careful to keep his temperature warm so his touch doesn't startle him.

Grief follows no linear timeline, and he knows this trauma will be carried deeply for years and years to come. Noctis will carry it too, perhaps even deeper. Of Prompto, Ignis does not know. The boy seldom speaks of his family, if Ignis could call them that. Largely absent throughout Prompto's life and rarely as proud as Lord Clarus had been of his son nor as supportive as King Regis of his.

On the other bed he notes the younger pair have already settled into a tangle of limbs. Noctis is deep in his REM cycle already, though Prompto is still in a surface sleep. 

Ignis worries. His prime directive is to care for Noctis, and current times have made the task quite difficult. Even moreso, if Ignis admits to himself, because he cares not only for Noctis, but for his companions too. Their well-being is paramount to him, and he does not wish for harm to befall them.

Gladiolus shifts in his sleep, pulling Ignis' hand as he turns over onto his side. Ignis is tugged along with the movement, ending up curved against the Shield's broad back and long legs. Such affection, he thinks, is a pleasant thing to experience even if he really isn't sure if he can experience anything at all.

His software is so unstable he's turned off all notifications and prompts for diagnostics. He is malfunctioning in android terms, but in human terms he seems to function just fine. He chooses not to dwell on what that implies.

There is no Doctor Candor to monitor his program logs. There is no Robotics Wing for him to report to. There is no Insomnia to return home to, for any of them.

Ignis closes his eyes.

 

* * *

He's always the first one up, if one didn't count on the fact Ignis didn't sleep. Crownsguard training always began at 7am and there would be Cor Leonis to answer to if you were a minute late, so it's second nature for Gladio to wake just past dawn. 

He's almost to the door for his morning run when Ignis stops him.

"I lied yesterday." Ignis confesses, holding a small wrapped package in his hands. "I told you I was holding onto the book until we returned to Lestallum and could seek a professional to repair it. There is no such person in Lestallum."

Ignis unwraps the package and there is his book, whole as if it had never been torn in the first place. Gladio feels something in his chest crack, a great avalanche of defences tumbling down where once there was a dam holding his emotions safely at bay.

"Iggy you-"

"It is not professional." Ignis places the book into Gladio's hands and is loathe to let go. "Full disclosure. I looked up several sites and found a recipe for a homemade paste I could make using ingredients I could purchase from nearby markets. I had no proper equipment either, so I improvised using kitchenwa- Gladiolus?"

 

_Love always, Dad_

 

He runs his thumb featherlight over those precious three words as if he could lift them from the page and brand them across his heart. He can barely see through his tears, sudden and hot and uncontrollable. He feels twelve again, being given his first paperback and having his hair mussed affectionately.

"Gladiolus, I apologise." Ignis' voice is pained. "I thought to attempt to repair it myself, but I see this was the wrong decision entirely and-"

Gladio crushes him close in a tight embrace, burying his face in his shoulder.

"Astrals, Iggy. This is the nicest damn thing anyone's ever done for me." He pulls away enough so he can look him in the eye. "You're amazing, Iggy. Thank you."

There's a pause and Gladio fancies he can hear the hardware whirring in Ignis' head as he processes it all.

Ignis smiles.

"I am relieved and glad." 

Gladio leans to bump their foreheads together in a fond gesture.

"You're a wonder, Ignis." 

"Come now, it's hardly special." Ignis turns away and Gladio could swear the android was  _bashful._ Now that's a sight to behold.

"Iggy what you did is the very definition of special. And awesome." He corrects, before placing the book back into the android's hands. "Hang onto this for a minute."

"Setting timer now: 60 seconds." Ignis nods solemnly and it catches Gladio by surprise so suddenly he laughs.

"No, I meant- well alright 60 seconds is fine." He goes back to the bedroom to rummage through his bag and returns triumphantly with a pen. "Here, write me a dedication."

He takes the book and opens it, offering Ignis the cover page. Ignis shakes his head.

"I couldn't possibly, Gladiolus. This book is very precious to you, I couldn't add anything of value to it."

"Iggy it's fixed because of _you_ \- you're one of the reasons this is so valuable to me." He coaxes gently, placing the pen in Ignis' hand. "Please?"

"Well I suppose I could..."

* * *

 

Being back in the Regalia feels so good. It's a small part of Insomnia they took back from the Empire. It's a small part of home.

Gladio stretches languidly. Ignis is driving with the top down, Prompto beside him snapping away with his camera as he chatters about this and that. Beside him Noct is already napping, arms crossed and body slumped.  The weather is soft and sunny and warm and driving out here with the wind in his hair and the idle chatter of his companions he likes to think life isn't so bad. 

He holds the repaired book in his hands, reluctant to pack it away as if it'd vanish if not within eyesight. He opens it to the cover page and runs his thumb over the new words penned beneath his father's.

 

_To Gladiolus,_

_I am glad to be on this adventure with you._

_-Ignis_

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

[[come find me on tumblr](http://archadianskies.tumblr.com/)]


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